100 arrested in Conn. drug sweep

NIANTIC, Conn. - Hundreds of law-enforcement agents swept into southeastern Connecticut yesterday in an operation that authorities described as a massive takedown of heroin and cocaine traffickers.

NIANTIC, Conn. — Hundreds of law-enforcement agents swept into southeastern Connecticut yesterday in an operation that authorities described as a massive takedown of heroin and cocaine traffickers.

About 100 suspects were arrested in four northeastern states and Puerto Rico, climaxing a 15-month probe into two smuggling operations that brought in drugs from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

“This is a massive operation that we did today,” U.S. Attorney David Fein said at a news conference at a National Guard facility in Niantic, not far from the focus of the sweep. “ Especially for a city the size of New London, it’s a major operation.”

New London is a harbor city of about 27,600 people on the coast of Long Island Sound.

More than 700 law-enforcement officers made arrests in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. The federal prosecutor’s office in Connecticut and a unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security led the investigation.